2K Marin has huge expectations to live up to for fans of the XCOM franchise. The studio’s re imagining of a tactical strategy game into a first person shooter have come with a great share of fear, negativity, and skepticism from internet message boards. Yet, the initial perceptions of XCOM are unfounded when I sat in on an in-game presentation at E3 2010 and received a better context of the game’s premise.
Set in an idyllic 1950’s America, the backdrop of XCOM places you within the role of a secretive government agency tasked to investigate and fight the unknown. Something is wrong in America despite a perceived “golden age” of prosperity. With reports of supernatural alien anomalies coming in across the country, it is up to the XCOM organization to unravel the mysteries behind this menace. The premise of XCOM originates from the discovery of a artifact that subsequently preempts a subversive alien invasion. You, as William Carter, a special agent, is assigned to investigate these disturbances occurring throughout the entirety of the game.
At the start of the demo, you begin at the XCOM base of operations, essentially a makeshift warehouse disguised as an aircraft hangar. From there, the headquarters serves as the central hub in engaging the game’s various objectives. There’s a map of the United States that designates “blips” denoting a specific task whether it’s a rescue, anomaly, or unknown. The demo led players to investigate a disturbance in a quiet suburban neighborhood. Before we jumped into the car, however, we were introduced to one of the key pillars of XCOM’s gameplay, research. Research plays an integral role in XCOM as the player progresses in the task of investigation, he or she will ultimately unlock the capacity to utilize new weapon unlockables that are outfitted to fight the aliens and designed to target their weak spots. We were introduced to our standard primary weapon, the double-barrel shotgun, yet a companion assortment of research arsenal like the blobatov and a lightning gun makes the game feeling far from an ordinary shooter.
After engaging in the research component of the game, we set out for fieldwork with a team of AI controlled agent allies. Once we’ve arrived on-location, the deserted suburban streets and an ominous doom track sets the mood that something has definitely run amok. This eerie scenario plays out first by incorporating its research component into the level. Allowing Carter to scout the area, following the blob slime trails; we came across a dead body covered in goo. This is where you pull out your research camera, snap a picture, and send it back to the lab for further analysis. I suppose there are greater rewards reaped for this feature somewhere down the line.
Combat comes after your recon endeavors as we audibly hear the cries of survivors helplessly trying to fend off the attacking blobs. The attackers are interestingly enough as they can circumvent physical walls by seeping through, making your shotgun practically useless against the formidable foes. In this situation, your lightning gun proves effective in dealing damage to the blobs, leaving you a limited amount of time to attack their cores before they reform back into a nuisance. Working in sync with the lightning gun is the “blobatov,†has the capacity to deal range damage to all nearby blobs. Once the survivors are saved and the mission is complete, time to head back to your car right?
Nope, the game throws you a curveball by unleashing an enemy, at this point, you cannot defeat. A giant monolith called the Titan comes and destroys everything in your path, reforming its shape to fire off a destructive laser beam, conveniently at your direction. You have no choice but to run from the UFO and the demo promptly ends after a semi-chase sequence. XCOM has a captivating premise considering all the strategic elements employed through the lens of a first person perspective but it’ll be a while before we can get our hands on the full retail product.
XCOM is set for a 2011 release for PC, Xbox 360, and PS3 platforms.
